Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/795

Rh DEVELOPMENT OF THE PKINCIPATE.] the one hand and in the provinces on the other. Rome and Italy share in the decline of the republic. Polit- ical independence and activity die out; their old pre- eminence and exclusive privileges gradually disappear ; and at the same time the weight of the overwhelming power of the princeps, and the abuses of their power by individual " principes," press most heavily upon them. On the other hantl, in the provinces and on the frontiers, where the imperial system was most needed, and where from the first it had full play, unfettered by the fictions of republican government, it is seen at its best as devel- oping or protecting an orderly civilization and maintain- ing the peace of the world. Day The decay of the republican institutions had commenced oi.e- before the revolutionary crisis of 49. It was accelerated phcan ky ^e v i r t ua i suspension of all regular government between 49 and 28 ; and not even the diplomatic defer- 7 726. ence towards ancient forms which Augustus displayed availed to conceal the unreality of his work of restoration. T The " cornitia " received back from him " their ancient cuitia. rights," 1 and during his lifetime they continued to pass laws and to elect magistrates. But after the end of the reign of Tiberius we have only two instances of legislation by the assembly in the ordinary way, 2 and the law-making of the empire is performed either by decrees of the senate or by imperial edicts and constitutions. Their prerogative of electing magistrates was, even under Augustus, robbed of most of its importance by the control which the princeps exercised over their choice by means of his rights of nomination and com- mendation, rights which effectually secured the election of his own nominees. 3 By Tiberius even this restricted prerogative was still further curtailed. The candidates for all magistracies except the consulship were thencefor- ward nominated and voted for in the senate-house and by the senators, 4 and only the "renuntiatio," the formal return of the result, and the introduction of the magis- trates designate to the people took place in the assembly. 5 And, though the election of consuls was never thus trans- ferred to the senate, the process of voting seems to have been silently abandoned. In the time of the younger Pliny we hear only of the nomination' of the candidates and of their formal " renuntiatio " in the Campus Martius. 6 By this empty form the ancient right of the people to confer all magisterial authority was saved, at least in appearance ; and it was acknowledged in as purely formal a manner in the case of the princeps himself, who, as long as the principate lasted, continued to receive the " tribunicia potestas " by a vote of the assembly, and was thus held to derive his authority from the people. 7 e This almost complete effacement of the "comitia"was largely due to the fact that they had ceased to represent anything but the populace of Rome, and the compara- tively greater vitality shown by the old magistracies is mainly attributable to the value they continued to possess in the eyes of the Roman upper class. But, though they were 1 Suet., Aug., 40, "comitiorum pristinum jus reduxit. " 2 The "plebiscita" of Claudius, Tac., Ann., xi. 13, 14, and the "lexagraria" of Nerva ; Digest, xlvii. 21, 3; Dio, Ixviii. 2; Plin., Epp., vii. 31. 3 For the nature of these rights, the latter of which was not exercised in the case of the consulship until the time of Vespasian, see Mommsen, Staatsr., ii. 861-869; Tac., Ann., i. 14, 15, 81; Suet., Aug., 56 ; Dio, Iviii. 20. 4 Tac., Ann., i. 15, "comitia e campo ad patres translata sunt"; compare Ann., xiv. 28. The magistracy directly referred to is the proetorship, but that the change affected the lower magistracies also is certain ; see, e.g., Pliny's Letters, passim, especially iii. 20, vi. 19. 5 Dio, Iviii. 20. 6 Mommsen, Staatsr., ii. 865, 866 ; Plin., Paneg., 92. 7 Gains, i. 5, "cum ipse imperator per legem imperium accipiat." Mommsen is probably right in referring this to the " lex tribu- nicia." 771 eagerly sought, 8 and conferred on their holders considerable social distinction, the magistrates ceased, except in name, to be the popularly chosen executive officers of the Roman state. In the administration of the empire at large they had no share, if we except the subordinate duties still assigned to the quaestor in a province. In Rome, to which their sphere of work was limited, they were over- shadowed by the dominant authority of the princeps, while their range of duties was increasingly circumscribed by the gradual transference of administrative authority, even within the city, to the emperor and his subordinate officials. And their dependence on the princeps was con- firmed by the control he exercised over their appointment For all candidates the approval, if not the commendation, of the princeps became the indispensable condition of success, and the princeps on his side treated these ancient offices as pieces of preferment with which to reward his adherents or gratify the ambition of Roman nobles. In all instances, too, the dignity of the office was impaired by the practice, begun by Caesar and continued by Augustus and his successors, of granting the insignia to men who had not held the actual magistracy itself. 9 The change is especially noticeable in the case of the consuls, Consul the chief magistrates of the old commonwealth. The con- 8 J"P- sulship was still the highest post open to the private citizen, 10 and consular rank a necessary qualification for high office in the provinces ; 1] but the actual consuls have scarcely any other duties than those of presiding in the senate, conducting its proceedings, and occasionally exe- cuting its decrees, 12 while their term of office dwindles from a year to six and finally to two months. 13 In the age of Tacitus and the younger Pliny, the contrast is striking enough between the high estimate set on the dignity of the office and the frankness with which both its limited powers and its dependence on the emperor are acknow- ledged. 14 Of the other magistrates the praetors continued Pratoi to exercise their old jurisdiction with little formal change shl P- down at least to the latter half of the second century, but only as subordinate to the higher judicial authority of the emperor. 15 The aediles seem to have retained only ^Edile- such petty police duties as did not pass to one or another shi P- of the numerous imperial prefects and commissioners. 16 The tribunate fared still worse, for, by the side of the Tribu- tribunicia potestas wielded by the princeps, it sank into nate- insignificance, and it is described by the younger Pliny as a "shadow and an empty name." 17 The quaestorship Qus- 8 Plin., Epp., ii. 9, vi. 6. See, generally, Friedlaender, Sitten- geschichte Roms (Leipsic, 1869), pp. J 227 sq. 9 The permission to use the " ornamenta consularia, praetoria," &c., was distinct from the "adlectio inter consulares, praetorios," &c. See Mommsen, Staatsr., ii. 877 sq.; Suet., JuL, 76 ; Claud., v. 24 ; Tac., Ann., xii. 21, xv. 72 ; Dio Cass., Ix. 8. Cf. also Friedlaender, i. 224. 10 Tac., Agric., 44; Pliny, Epp., ii. 1, "summum fastigium privati hominis." 11 For a consular senatorial province and for the more important of the imperial legateships. 12 Plin., Paneg., 48, graphically sums up the consuls' duties. 13 Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 79. Six months was the usual term down to the death of Nero ; we have then four or two months ; in the 3d century two is the^ule. The consuls who entered on office on January 1 were styled "consules ordinarii," and gave their name to the year. Seneca De Ira, iii. 31, "a me numerari voluit annum." Lucan, Phars., v. 398, " careat ne nomine tempus, menstruus infastos distinguet saecula consul." Plin., Paneg., 58. Tho others were distinguished as "consules suffecti" or "minores" ; Dio Cass., xlviii. 35. 14 Plin., Paneg., 92 ; Tac., Hist., i. 1 ; Agric., 44. 15 Mommsen, Staatsr., ii. 206. 16 They lost the " cura annonae " and " cura ludorum " as well as other duties, which passed to such officers as the "praefectus vigilum," and the " curatores viarum, cloacarum," &c. There is no mention of the ffidileship after the reign of Severus Alexander. 17 Plin., Epp., i. 23, "inanem umbram et sine honore nomen." There are a few instances of the exercise by the tribunes of their power of interference within the senate ; Tac. , Ann. , i. 77, vi. 47, xvi. 26 ; Plin., Epp., ix. 13. torshij